The next morning, Sam didn't use the bus.
He walked to the office.
Usually, he would be out of breath, but today he felt like he was floating.
The city felt different.
He could hear the birds chirping over the sound of car horns.
He could smell the rain on the pavement.
He arrived at the logistics firm and sat at his desk.
Everything was the same. The grey walls, the flickering lights, and the piles of paperwork.
"I still need money,"
Sam thought.
"Cultivation doesn't pay the rent. Not yet."
His boss, Mr. Miller walked over with a thick stack of folders.
Mr. Miller was a loud man who always smelled like cheap coffee.
"Sam! These shipping logs are late. Get them done by noon or don't bother leaving,"
He barked, dropping the folders on Sam's desk.
In the past, Sam would have panicked.
He would have felt a headache starting. But now, he just nodded. He opened his laptop and started typing.
As he worked, he used a tiny bit of Blossom Breathing.
The pink Qi moved to his eyes and fingers.
The numbers on the screen seemed to move slower.
He saw every mistake instantly. His fingers danced across the keyboard like he was practicing the Cherry Blossom Sword Art.
By 10:00 AM, he was finished. Every file was perfect.
Mr. Miller walked by and stopped. He looked at Sam's empty "In-Box" and then at the screen.
"Are you done?"
Mr. Miller asked, confused.
"Did you skip the China shipments?"
"Everything is done, sir,"
Sam said calmly.
"I checked it twice."
Mr. Miller squinted.
"You didn't make a single mistake. What happened to you? Did you finally buy a better brain?"
Sam just smiled. It was a simple, confident smile.
Mr. Miller felt a bit nervous and walked away, scratching his head.
As the day went on, Sam noticed something else.
The people in the office were looking at him.
He didn't realize it, but the Qi was changing his body.
His skin was glowing with health. His eyes were bright and clear.
Even his posture was different; he sat tall and strong instead of slouching.
When he walked to the breakroom to get water, he passed Sarah, the receptionist.
She usually never looked at him.
"Oh! Sorry, Sam,"
She said as they almost bumped into each other. She stopped and blinked.
"Wait... did you get a haircut? Or a new suit?"
"No, just got some good sleep,"
Sam said.
Sarah stepped a little closer. Her nose twitched.
"You smell... amazing. Like cherry blossoms in the rain. Is that a new cologne?"
"Something like that,"
Sam replied.
Other women in the office started to whisper.
They noticed that Sam didn't look like a tired salaryman anymore.
He looked like someone important. Someone powerful.
Sam went back to his desk. He could feel their eyes on him, and he could feel their "Yin" energy. It was faint, but it was there.
"The Dual Cultivation,"
Sam thought, his heart beating a bit faster.
"It's still locked... but the world is starting to react to me."
He looked at the clock. The work day was almost over.
The days turned into weeks.
Sam's life followed a new, steady rhythm.
In the morning, he practiced the Blossom Breathing.
In the afternoon, he finished a mountain of work in record time.
In the evening, he practiced the Cherry Blossom Sword Art with his wooden yardstick until the air in his room smelled like spring.
His body was changing faster now.
His muscles became lean and hard.
His jawline was sharp, and his eyes had a deep, calm glow.
He didn't just look healthy; he looked like a masterpiece.
At the logistics firm, the atmosphere changed completely.
The grey office didn't feel so dull anymore, mostly because the women there wouldn't stop looking at him.
Sarah, the receptionist, began bringing him coffee every morning.
"I thought you might need a boost,"
She would say, her face turning pink.
During lunch breaks, groups of women would sit near his desk, whispering and giggling.
They looked at him with "thirsty" eyes, like they were seeing a tall glass of water in a desert.
Even some of the female managers started making up excuses to call him into their offices.
"Sam, can you help me with this spreadsheet?"
One would ask, leaning in a little too close.
Sam knew he couldn't use Dual Cultivation yet.
He wasn't strong enough to guide their energy, and they didn't have any Qi to share.
But Sam was still a man, and he was tired of being a lonely salaryman.
One Friday night, Sarah invited him out for a drink.
They ended up back at her apartment.
Sam realized that while the "immortal" part of the book was locked, the "knowledge" part was wide open.
The memories in his head weren't just about fighting and breathing.
They were about the human body.
They were about touch, heat, and how to make a partner feel like they were floating in the clouds.
They didn't cultivate, but they did have sex.
Sam didn't use his Qi to take power.
Instead, he used his new, heightened senses to listen to her heartbeat and her breath.
He moved with the same grace he used for his sword art. He was patient and focused.
"Oh my god, Sam,"
Sarah whispered afterwards, her voice shaking.
"Where did you learn to... to do that?"
"I've been practicing,"
Sam said with a small smirk.
As he walked home that night, Sam felt a strange sensation.
Even though he hadn't used the "Dual" technique, being close to Sarah's "Yin" energy had calmed his own "Yang."
He felt more balanced. He felt happier.
The night was quiet as Sam walked down the dark alley toward his apartment.
He was still feeling the calm energy from his time with Sarah.
But suddenly, the air felt cold.
Three men stepped out from behind some trash cans.
They were wearing hoodies and holding knives.
"Wallet and phone, pretty boy,"
The one in the middle said.
"Don't make this hard."
Sam didn't feel scared. In his old life, he would have been shaking.
Now, his heart was steady. He could see their movements before they even started.
They were slow. Very slow.
"Don't ruin my mood,"
Sam said. His voice was deep and calm.
"Fuck off."
The men laughed. The leader lunged forward with his knife.
Sam moved like a falling petal. He stepped to the side, and the man's knife hit nothing but air.
Sam tapped the man's wrist.
Crack.
The knife fell to the ground.
The other two ran at him. Sam moved in a blur. He used the "Budding Hope" footwork from his sword art.
He struck their pressure points with his fingers.
To the robbers, it felt like being hit by a hammer made of silk.
In ten seconds, all three men were on the ground, groaning.
They weren't dead, but they wouldn't be standing up for a long time.
"Humph,"
He didn't even have a scratch on him.
Sam turned to leave, but then he stopped.
His Qi hummed under his skin. It was a warning.
He felt a pair of eyes on him. It wasn't the "thirsty" gaze of the women at his office. This was sharp. Cold. Professional. It came from the shadows on top of a nearby brick building.
Sam didn't look up directly. He used his new senses to "feel" the person.
The energy was hidden well, but he could tell it was a woman. She was fast and dangerous.
Natasha Romanoff. The Black Widow.
Sam's heart hammered against his ribs. He knew who she was from the "future" he remembered.
He didn't think S.H.I.E.L.D. would find him this fast.
"She must think I'm just a guy who knows martial arts,"
Sam thought. He made sure not to use any pink Qi.
He kept his movements looking like normal karate.
The shadow moved. There was a faint sound of a boot hitting a roof, and then she was gone.
She disappeared into the night like a ghost.
Sam walked the rest of the way to his apartment, feeling a cold sweat on his back.
"That was too close,"
He breathed as he locked his door.
"I'm not ready for the Avengers yet. I'm just at the Qi Gathering stage. If they think I'm a threat, I'm finished."
He felt relieved that she had left so quickly.
He assumed she was just passing through or following the robbers.
But Sam was wrong.
A few doors down from his studio apartment, in a room he thought was empty, Natasha Romanoff sat in the dark.
She was looking at a laptop screen.
On the screen was Sam's office file and a video of him fighting the robbers.
She had been watching him for days.
"He's good,"
Natasha whispered into her comms.
"Better than his file says. But for now, he's just a civilian with some talent. I'll keep watching."
Sam sat on his bed and started his Blossom Breathing.
He didn't know that the most dangerous woman in the world was living just a few meters away, listening to the sound of his breath.